Puppy Love
by moeruhoshi
Summary: Igneel is confused as Natsu wakes up very upset one morning. His anger, the Dragneel parents find, stems from his intense need to see a girl he met on the playground the day before?


**Heyyyyy I'm back bc why tf not you know you love me**

**Anyways I posted this to my tumblr a couple of days ago and now I'm uploading it here**

**If you've already read it, then you'll see that I extended the ending a bit bc yeah**

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Natsu smacked his lips and stretched his arms over his head, a low growl in his throat as he did so. His jaw lowered itself as he let out a loud yawn, his small body lifting as he sat up. Igneel stood at the edge of his son's bed as he watched the fledgling roll out of bed, raising a brow as he walked right past him.

"Natsu? No good morning hug?" The Dragneel father was surprised that the pink-haired boy didn't immediately rocket himself from his sheets to glomp him with an insanely tight hug; which is why Grandine refused to wake him up.

The young dragon didn't bother answering his father as he waddled himself over to the bathroom to do his morning routine.

"Need any help with that?" He stifled a snicker as Natsu frustratedly pulled a t-shirt over his head and rolled around to tug on his pants.

Igneel watched as Natsu struggled to haul himself from stepstool to stepstool, almost missing the bowl as he fell half-asleep in front of the toilet and haphazardly brushing his teeth with toothpaste foam dripping from his bottom lip.

From there, he pushed past his father again, grumpily throwing off his pajamas, rifling through his dresser for his clothes.

"Leave me alone," Natsu glared at his dad while he pulled on his socks on. "Igneel."

The older dragon was stunned, though not very surprised. The six-year-old only called his father by his first name whenever he was upset…but was there anything for him to be upset about?

He followed the small stomps Natsu produced as he went down the stairs, Gradine sliding Wendy into her high chair as they approached the dining room table.

"Good…morning, Natsu," The sky dragon frowned as Natsu pushed her face aside as she bent down to give him a kiss, and continued forward until he was seated for breakfast.

"I think someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Igneel shrugged to his confused wife.

"I see," She hummed before walking into the kitchen and returning with two plates. "I at least hope you have an appetite, little boy. I made waffles, and I know how much you like them with chili mangos,"

They sighed as the young dragon at least began eating, but the crease between his brows failed to unfold. Not even the sight of Wendy awkwardly shoving spoonfuls of mashed blueberries in her mouth seemed to be able to put him in a better mood.

"Is there something wrong, Natsu? Did you have a bad dream last night?" Grandine asked as she watched him angrily chew on a mango chunk.

"You leave me alone, too, Grandine. I'm not a baby," Natsu spat, his mother taken aback by his harsh tone of voice.

"That's no way to talk to your mother, Natsu. Either you use your words, or I'll have to send you to your room," Igneel sighed as the fledgling glared endlessly at him. He grumbled as he stabbed his fisted fork into a slice of his waffle, mildly nibbling at it before he sighed and stood up on his chair.

"I'm upset today," He said a matter of factly with his hands planted on his hips.

"We can see that Natsu." The red-haired man rolled his eyes. "But we don't understand why, so you have to tell us more if you want us to help you,"

The little dragon huffed and sat down again, taking a quick swig from the sippy cup of chocolate milk that sat beside his plate.

"I want to see Lucy," He said as he crossed his arms, a substantial heft of the weight on his shoulders seeming to disappear.

"…who's Lucy?" Igneel shook his head at Grandine's question; he really had absolutely no idea who this supposed Lucy was.

"She's Lucy," Was all that Natsu responded with as he continued to eat, unbothered by the confused and exasperated looks his parents threw at him.

"Is she imaginary? Is that why you can't see her?" Igneel asked, and Natsu shook his head.

"I played at the park with her all day yesterday, and I want to see her again,"

"Oh! Well then, I suppose we can go to the park again today if you want to see her that badly," Grandine smiled knowingly as Natsu instantly perked up and continued to finish his breakfast quickly.

"Oh…oh goodness, we look away from you for two minutes and you make such a mess," Igneel groaned as he looked upon his daughter, her blueberry mix spilled all over her tray, the fruit on her hands and cheeks as well, her burbled laughter producing as she continued to slap the purée.

It wasn't long before the Dragneel family had packed a lunch and made their way to the park. Grandine giggled as Natsu immediately took off for the playground a short distance away from them, planting himself on a swing as he waited and turned his head and looked around for the mystery girl.

"You know, she might not come to the park today," Igneel said as he unfurled a blanket and laid it down on the grass.

"Oh, crap," Grandine clicked her tongue as she pulled Wendy out of her stroller seat. "Well…it's just puppy love, right? I think he'll feel better tomorrow even if he doesn't see her today,"

And she didn't show up, unfortunately. Natsu would have stayed glued to the seat of the swingset until midnight if Igneel hadn't pulled his fire-spewing ass off of it.

The next morning wasn't better, strangely enough. If not for the fireproofing Grandine's mother cast on their house and belongings, Natsu would have surely burned everything to ash. He was unbelievably restless and refused to stay in the house, Igneel having to take him to the park to wait every afternoon for the girl he apparently had made friends with.

"You're the fire dragon, he's your problem," Grandine said as she glared and shook her head, holding Wendy close to her chest as she looked upon the burning boy who sat in front of the T.V.

"B-But…" Igneel's bottom lip quivered as he looked into Wendy's innocent eyes retreat up the stairs, her little pudgy hand waving her dad goodbye while looking over her mother's shoulder.

The two Dragneel parents were truly worried that their son wasn't somewhat in the right in the head when Igneel went to wake him up on the fifth day Natsu had gone without seeing Lucy.

"Scales? Igneel, Natsu isn't supposed to grow his scales until he hits puberty, what the hell is going on?!" Grandine's narrowed eyes and creased brows mirrored Igneel's own displeasure, the fire dragon holding his head tiredly in his hands as he sat at the table later that night.

"I know that…and all because he can't see this Lucy girl? I don't…get…it…"

"Oh hell no,"

As Grandine and Igneel ran up to their son's bedroom, the obvious stench of his early marking emitted from his flaming form.

"I blame you for this, you were at the park with him that day, why weren't you watching him?!" Grandine hissed as she smacked her husband's arm with one of Natsu's plushies. "And you call yourself a dragon, hmph."

"Don't get mad at me, you didn't notice it either!" He whisper-shouted back. "And…I was reading that day! I had my nose on him, so I didn't think to worry about it!"

As the sixth day rolled around, Igneel followed slowly behind the child he might have been extremely terrified of as they made their way to the park again.

Natsu went to sit on his usual swing set, with his flames thankfully subdued. The Dragneel father sat under a nearby tree as he sighed and waited again for a girl he was beginning to believe never existed.

As the sun began to set and the moon lit up in the sky and he began to rightfully drift off, a sudden sparkle was caught in the corner of his eye.

Igneel blinked blearily as he watched the glitter that fell from the sky and began to form the outline of…a person? No, two people…three...four people...Or was that a lion? And a mermaid?!

"Lucy! Lucy! It's really you!" It was the first time in almost week that Natsu had spread a grin, the fledgling rocketing off the swing to gather the girl in a monstrous grip.

"I didn't think she was actually telling the truth," The lion looking man groaned, falling to his knees as he held his head tiredly in his hands.

"Gosh, and to think, Lucy would have stopped throwing tantrums much sooner if we had actually listened to her," The woman sighed as she looked down on the two children now rolling around in the grass as they laughed and hugged.

"I knew it," The mermaid scoffed. "A woman in love is always dramatic,"

"Aquarius, you did not––"

"Shut it, lion boy,"

"Um, excuse me?" Igneel cleared his throat as he approached the...sky people? "Are you Lucy's mother?"

"Why, yes! Is that your Natsu?" She giggled as he nodded, the man continuing to groan and weep as he stayed level with the ground. "My Lucy has been going insane over your boy all week, but I didn't know she'd been able to get out of the house long enough by herself to have met anyone,"

"That was my fault…" The orange-haired man groaned as he finally stood to his feet. "The princess can be quite tricky with her words. I let her out to play in the garden nor knowing she knew how to make it down to Earthland on her own."

"Oh, hush it, you," The mermaid glared as she slapped the lion on the back with her tail, resulting in him falling over. "You'll let her do anything when all she does is smile for you. You don't know how to discipline her at all."

"My son was a handful too," Igneel sighed as he watched the young dragon pull Lucy onto the playground, his heart clenching at the sight of the grin he'd missed so much. "I'd say it were puppy love, but we've got an extreme situation on our hands."

"Is that so?" Aquarius grunted as Igneel went on to explain the situation in its entirety, Loke quickly falling apart as the news of his darling princess's fate was unfolded.

"Lucy! Princess, stop kissing that boy, he's no good! Come back to me, won't you?! You said you wanted to marry me first!"


End file.
